James Gandolfini’s favourite co-stars of all time: “I have been very lucky”
What a shock it was when James Gandolfini passed away back in 2013. While it’s obvious he had already produced his magnum opus in the shape of The Sopranos, he was just 51 years old when he died of a heart attack, no age for anyone, and he would no doubt have gone on to play any number of memorable roles had he lived longer.
So completely did Gandolfini inhabit the role of Tony Soprano in the HBO series that changed television as we know it, that it’s sometimes hard to remember that he had several major movie parts both before and after it; even before fame found him as the head of a mafia family he had acted alongside some of the greatest ever to grace the big screens in movies as well known as Crimson Tide, Get Shorty and Where the Wild Things Are.
A New Jersey native, he studied theatre at a New York acting school and picked up the occasional acting role in low-budget films before landing a Broadway part in the late 1980s in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, the Tennessee Williams play that brought Marlon Brando such success in the film version.
Early in the next decade, his first major movie was the Quentin Tarantino-penned True Romance, a film that featured an array of acting talent, including the likes of Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt. Gandolfini still somehow managed to stand out however, even in such stellar company. It was enough to get him cast in the Charlie Sheen action thriller Terminal Velocity the following year, and then Crimson Tide the year after that.
Pairing Gandolfini with Gene Hackman, the movie was a blockbuster in the truest sense of the word, a Simpson/Bruckheimer production with a Hans Zimmer soundtrack and two central stars in Hackman and Denzel Washington. It tells the story of a US submarine Commanding Officer and his number two as they clash over launching nuclear submarines at Russian targets and was nominated for three Oscars, bringing in three times its budget at the box office.
Despite Hackman’s reputation as an actor who could be difficult to work with on occasion, Gandolfini experienced none of that, citing him as one of the best he ever worked with, and he found himself on set again with the legendary Hackman that same year in the industry comedy Get Shorty.
Asked who he had enjoyed appearing alongside the most over his career, Gandolfini said: “Everybody on The Sopranos. Gene Hackman. Alec Baldwin (in The Juror). I’ve never worked with an actor that I did not like. I don’t see any of these stories that you hear about people. People worked too hard to get where they are. There aren’t a lot of problems. George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon (in 1997’s TV remake Twelve Angry Men) were amazing to work with. I mean, I have been very lucky.”
Gandolfini would eventually get the part that would define his career in 1999 after The Sopranos creator David Chase was convinced by the actor’s performance in True Romance and a subsequent audition. The role brought Gandolfini a string of awards including Golden Globes, Emmys and a Screen Actor’s Guild award. His work on all six seasons of the show have gone down as arguably the greatest dramatic performance in television history.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.